jacoblambda's recent activity

  1. Comment on An unprecedented California program is already fulfilling its promise to house the most vulnerable in ~life

    jacoblambda
    Link Parent
    I'm assuming because that's the cost to buy or build new residential structures. Doubly so considering that California has terrible zoning laws in many places which prevent high density...

    I'm assuming because that's the cost to buy or build new residential structures. Doubly so considering that California has terrible zoning laws in many places which prevent high density residential from being constructed. I think this changed for the better within the last few months but it's still far from ideal.

    4 votes
  2. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    jacoblambda
    Link
    At the moment I've got a backlog of personal projects that I've been working on. My current big two projects are: Project 1 A glue/duct tape header only framework that generates Rapidcheck test...

    At the moment I've got a backlog of personal projects that I've been working on.

    My current big two projects are:

    Project 1

    A glue/duct tape header only framework that generates Rapidcheck test case and state case generators for Boost::SML, Boost::DI, Boost::SafeNumerics and possibly a few other libraries once I get those out of the way.

    The big idea here is to reduce the friction in fully modelling software systems using property based testing. Libraries like Boost SML, DI, and SafeNumerics greatly simplify certain types of C++ code while introducing little runtime, compile time, or boilerplate-esque overhead. The issue however is that writing tests that operate on these systems results in modelling these systems over and over again. Luckily these libraries are template based which allows us to consume the templated types and produce generated fixtures more or less automagically. You can see this with the Boost::SML example being able to easily generate PlantUML diagrams by parsing the SML template at compile time and then dumping the result to console at runtime. I'm essentially using this same technique to generate test generators for these libraries.

    Project 2

    I'm trying to put together a Use-Only-What-You-Need CMake template project with as many features as possible already set up and ready for use. i.e. Package manager integration, full support for a bunch of static analysis, runtime sanitiser, fuzzers, and testing utilities (tools like Spin). Have it come with an out of the box fully configured documentation pipeline with diagram/figure/video integration and effective support for internal vs dev vs user documentation as well as online vs man page style vs paper back documentation. Additionally, have it set up to support various debuggers out of the box and have templates for CI integration.

    The big differentiator from other templates I'm wanting to include is support for multi-compiler builds and adding a deploy step. The basic idea is that by default it uses the system complier however you can specify additional compilers to validate against as well as various architectures (think an uber build). The additional step my project is taking is making it intuitive to have fractional/partial compiler support, i.e. Only use certain compiler/build env for certain tasks (i.e. native builds for testing vs cross platform/embedded builds for deployment/field testing). This would then be able to use the deploy step to push to a test environment or flash to embedded dev hardware and during debugging, automatically hook into the remote debugger regardless of IDE. (I'm looking at you CCS, you never fail to disappoint me).

    Basically my projects at the moment are largely around improving tooling for various projects. This is both for personal reasons as well as helping modernise some projects at work.

    Otherwise I have a few project ideas involving CAD and 3D modelling but those are a while down the pipeline.

    4 votes
  3. Comment on General US protests discussion in ~talk

    jacoblambda
    Link Parent
    The one tac I'd put on the Minneapolis video in case people don't catch it is that despite their very obviously blatant overexertion of force, the police seem to be using non-lethal rounds. From...

    The one tac I'd put on the Minneapolis video in case people don't catch it is that despite their very obviously blatant overexertion of force, the police seem to be using non-lethal rounds. From the video it seems like some type of ring airfoil projectile as can be seen by what looks like either marking powder or tear gas around the 23 second mark.

    Just want to make it clear that in that video non-lethals are being used as I know several people who thought they were using live rounds and were sharing the video with that attached.

    3 votes
  4. Comment on Mark Zuckerberg discovers privacy in ~tech

    jacoblambda
    Link
    You know, this article is so violently salty about everything Facebook and Zuckerberg are and stand for. Normally this would be an instant turn off for an article but this time it happened to be...

    You know, this article is so violently salty about everything Facebook and Zuckerberg are and stand for. Normally this would be an instant turn off for an article but this time it happened to be extraordinarily entertaining.

    12 votes
  5. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

    jacoblambda
    Link
    I'm a bit strapped on time so I'll be keeping stuff short. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T: Railgun continues to do everything Toaru does well and I am having a ball with it. Also praise be for my...

    I'm a bit strapped on time so I'll be keeping stuff short.

    Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T:

    Railgun continues to do everything Toaru does well and I am having a ball with it. Also praise be for my favourite character Saten getting plenty of good screen time this season.

    Ascendence of a Bookworm:

    Just binge watched this entire season. It was just so incredibly satisfying and while the ending has a sharp change in tone, it was done excellently and was extraordinarily fun to watch. I absolutely can't wait for season 2 of this show to come out in April.

    1 vote
  6. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

    jacoblambda
    Link Parent
    Sora no Woto is such a good show so I urge you to watch it all the way through to the end. I can't go into it too much without getting into spoiler territory however what the show is doing is very...

    Sora no Woto is such a good show so I urge you to watch it all the way through to the end. I can't go into it too much without getting into spoiler territory however what the show is doing is very intentional and those questions do in fact more or less all get answered in the end. The show feels unfocused at first but it really is good and the decision of how to handle the first few episodes makes sense after you finish the show.

    1 vote
  7. Comment on Should there be a way to turn off replies for a comment? in ~tildes

    jacoblambda
    Link Parent
    Yep and I think their point was that there should be a checkbox for "I don't want to receive notifications for comments connected to this" for both comments and actual posts. It should be noted...

    Yep and I think their point was that there should be a checkbox for "I don't want to receive notifications for comments connected to this" for both comments and actual posts. It should be noted that this feature is currently on the TODO list for the site.

    I should add in as an aside that I agree with this sentiment that you should be able to disable notifications but not necessarily disable comments.

    3 votes
  8. Comment on What's a widely criticized thing that you feel is worth defending? in ~talk

    jacoblambda
    Link Parent
    I would argue that while this is incredibly accurate in its current form, it is not necessarily accurate in the general form. Most content on the web, free or not, is centralised content in that a...

    Few things have been worse for society than the "free content" of the internet.

    I would argue that while this is incredibly accurate in its current form, it is not necessarily accurate in the general form. Most content on the web, free or not, is centralised content in that a single entity has a monopoly over the creation, publication, advertising to an extent, and distribution of said content. As such, large corporations have immense control over that "free content" and how people access it.

    Much like how content providers (be it news, audio/video entertainment, etc) without their own platform are greatly restricted in how much access they have to your data and to a lesser extent how many/what type of ads you see, if we were to migrate to having an open, decentralised(in terms of servers and ownership) content platform that content providers could use, then these issues (data collection and ads) would be much less of an issue. Such a system could easily be designed to be largely anonymous and provide much more freedom in terms of content funding.

    Imagine such a system where ads were served and content could be provided for free in exchange for viewing the ads. The quantity of ads could be set based on a formula heavily on the compensation desired per view or partial view by the content providers. Now the system could also allow users to pay per view whatever the equivalent "cost" was from the ads or some ratio of explicit pay per view to ads served. You could also handle periodic (day/week/month/year) subscriptions as well (possibly with a separate bandwidth fee for the network). With a decentralised system where the users' and producers' opinions actually have weight, you could offer the freedom to choose between all of these payment systems or hybrids of them.

    Provided that there is freedom in selecting payment methods as described in the prior paragraph, you can to some extend curb the decline in content quality. This is because the consumers can choose their preferred payment model and the distribution of payment models is for a producer will set the incentives for quality vs more "clickbait" or low-bar content.

    Now mind you that there is nothing stopping centralised content providers from offering these features however by and large it is within the interest of the content provider to take the route most advantageous to them which is often not the most advantageous to consumers. With regard to handling the diverse payment options, centralised providers often decide on one choice of payment as to simplify their content metrics and payment processing however provided that it is abstracted behind an open and decentralised content network, the friction is removed and more preferably the ability to disable choices for payment options would be disabled.

    Note: Apologies if this is a bit rambly, I had a train of thought that kept being cut off due to people trying to talk to me irl one after another.

    4 votes
  9. Comment on What's something you're comfortable telling people on the internet that you wouldn't share with people you know in real life? in ~talk

    jacoblambda
    Link
    Ooh this is an interesting one because with a handle like this one it is exceptionally easy to find out who I am. There are things I am willing to talk about here but not in person just due to...

    Ooh this is an interesting one because with a handle like this one it is exceptionally easy to find out who I am. There are things I am willing to talk about here but not in person just due to lack of confidence to talk about or lack of assurance that such comments about myself (that would be somewhat of a shock to some people) would hold true with time. With the risk that they come to light I rarely out right state them(like in a "tell me the things you don't want people in real life to know about you" type discussions) just because I don't want to deal with the hassle of somebody stumbling across them however I mention them in relevant discussions and don't make any real effort to hide them. Some of these are also ideas that are just "unique" and would earn me some strange looks.

    The only one of these that I would be willing to actually share would be that I have a completely irrational belief/fantasy that if I die young or even possibly when I die of old age that I may be reborn as somebody else during or near my current lifetime retaining my memory up to that point. Because of this and also partially just due to the utility of it, I have been putting in place a procedure to completely recover my digital presence without any access or reliance on my current self. Yes it is a dumb belief but it has a side effect of some utility and it can be a fun fantasy at times and helps to cope with the reality that we all die some day and what comes after. It is much easier to take risks when the worst thing that could happen in your mind is that you just start your life over as somebody else with all the knowledge and experience from before as well as having a shot at recovering some semblance of your old self through your digital footprint.

    Now there are also things I would never post with this handle due to the risk of them coming to light. These are the things that I am actually insecure about rather than the things that I just don't want to deal with the minor hassle of them becoming public. This includes some weird or unusual thoughts as well as being able to vent about the more actually not OK thoughts. I should also make it a point to mention that these are the type that people would otherwise write into a journal and then toss or shout into the void about with nobody around. These are the ones that I only talk about with properly anonymised accounts where I actually make an effort to follow decent opsec.

    In both of these cases it really is rather liberating just because I can be myself and I don't have to second guess how something will effect somebodies perception of me.

    7 votes
  10. Comment on You must time-travel to any time before 1799 and never come back. Where do you go? in ~talk

    jacoblambda
    Link Parent
    Yep. I don't think I'd be extremist enough to will that onto human history and die in the middle of a plague though. That's the other point which is that you would suffer all the diseases that...

    Yep. I don't think I'd be extremist enough to will that onto human history and die in the middle of a plague though. That's the other point which is that you would suffer all the diseases that have either been eradicated or have since evolved and the immunity for the modern variant doesn't work on the old version.

    Fun times and plague all around for you and everyone involved with where you go.

    2 votes
  11. Comment on I'm planning to enable the "mark new comments" feature for everyone - any major concerns? in ~tildes.official

    jacoblambda
    Link
    As one of those new users from HN, I figured I'd give my 2 cents. I signed up, experienced the site for a bit, and closed the tab to get back to work. I only just today went into my settings to...

    As one of those new users from HN, I figured I'd give my 2 cents.

    I signed up, experienced the site for a bit, and closed the tab to get back to work. I only just today went into my settings to look at the options because it was mentioned here however I normally give the site a week or two before I start poking around in the settings and customising my experience. This is how I handle most new sites or software just because I try to learn the default experience first and see what works or doesn't for me. I figure I can't be the only person who is like this which might explain the low use numbers of a non-default setting for us new members.

    That being said. I like the setting and think it should be a default but I disagree with removing the ability to turn it off. More features is rarely ever a bad thing, especially ones that may be relevant from a privacy standpoint (potential for tracking or fingerprinting).

    Another point I should bring up is that the settings page could benefit from being redesigned a bit. At first glance I thought that the link to enable marking new comments was just description text for the Site behaviour settings section. After looking at the page for a bit it made sense but I can see it being more confusing for people who are less technically savvy. I think putting links to new sections like this at the very bottom of each section would help distinguish this.

    TL;DR Set mark new comments as the default, don't remove the ability to disable the feature, and possibly rework the settings page to make links to settings sections more apparent.

    7 votes
  12. Comment on You must time-travel to any time before 1799 and never come back. Where do you go? in ~talk

    jacoblambda
    Link Parent
    My problem with going back in time anywhere nice and isolated like this is that you'd be effectively bringing the apocalypse to any society you interact with thanks to all the potential diseases...

    My problem with going back in time anywhere nice and isolated like this is that you'd be effectively bringing the apocalypse to any society you interact with thanks to all the potential diseases we have on our persons that those isolated people would have no immunity to at all.

    10 votes